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Health Secretary announces creation of new body.

A new joint organisation to drive the digitisation of the health sector was announced by the Health Secretary this morning after weeks of speculation. ‘NHSX’ will have strategic responsibility for setting the national direction on technology across health and care organisations.

The announcement follows the comments of outgoing Health Minister Lord O’ Shaughnessy, who argued that the split responsibilities for technology across NHS bodies was hindering progress. In announcing the new body, DHSC echoes the former Minister’s comments, stating that digital transformation has been sluggish and that the split of responsibilities across multiple agencies, teams and organisations has played a role. NHSX will seek to change this by bringing together policy levers and implementation under a single new Chief Executive.

techUK’s Head of Health and Social Care Ben Moody yesterday commented:

“Bringing together the NHS’s health tech leaders in this way should help to achieve the alignment of strategy and delivery that the NHS needs. The long-term plan for the NHS is not short on ambition – so NHSX will need an experienced and empowered CEO to bring the NHS up to speed with other parts of our digital economy.”